November 22, 1963: Death of the President - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum November 22, 1963: Death of the President November 22, 1963: Death of the President Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. By the fall of 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Although he had not formally announced his candidacy, it was clear that President Kennedy was going to run and he seemed confident about his chances for re-election. At the end of September, the president traveled west, speaking in nine different states in less than a week. The trip was meant to put a spotlight on natural resources and conservation efforts. But JFK also used it to sound out themes—such as education, national security, and world peace—for his run in 1964. Campaigning in Texas A month later, the president addressed Democratic gatherings in Boston and Philadelphia.

Then, on November 12, he held the first important political planning session for the upcoming election year. At the meeting, JFK stressed the importance of winning Florida and Texas and talked about his plans to visit both states in the next two weeks. Mrs. Kennedy would accompany him on the swing through Texas, which would be her first extended public appearance since the loss of their baby, Patrick, in August. On November 21, the president and first lady departed on Air Force One for the two-day, five-city tour of Texas. President Kennedy was aware that a feud among party leaders in Texas could jeopardize his chances of carrying the state in 1964, and one of his aims for the trip was to bring Democrats together. He also knew that a relatively small but vocal group of extremists was contributing to the political tensions in Texas and would likely make its presence felt—particularly in Dallas, where US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked a month earlier after making a speech there. Nonetheless, JFK seemed to relish the prospect of leaving Washington, getting out among the people and into the political fray. The first stop was San Antonio. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John B.

Connally, and Senator Ralph W. Yarborough led the welcoming party. They accompanied the president to Brooks Air Force Base for the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center. Continuing on to Houston, he addressed a Latin American citizens' organization and spoke at a testimonial dinner for Congressman Albert Thomas before ending the day in Fort Worth. Morning in Fort Worth A light rain was falling on Friday morning, November 22, but a crowd of several thousand stood in the parking lot outside the Texas Hotel where the Kennedys had spent the night. A platform was set up and the president, wearing no protection against the weather, came out to make some brief remarks. "There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth," he began, "and I appreciate your being here this morning. Mrs. Kennedy is organizing herself. It takes longer, but, of course, she looks better than we do when she does it." He went on to talk about the nation's need for being "second to none" in defense and in space, for continued growth in the economy and "the willingness of citizens of the United States to assume the burdens of leadership." The warmth of the audience response was palpable as the president reached out to shake hands amidst a sea of smiling faces.

Back inside the hotel the president spoke at a breakfast of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, focusing on military preparedness. "We are still the keystone in the arch of freedom," he said. "We will continue to do…our duty, and the people of Texas will be in the lead." On to Dallas The presidential party left the hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Arriving at Love Field, President and Mrs. Kennedy disembarked and immediately walked toward a fence where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered, and they spent several minutes shaking hands. The first lady received a bouquet of red roses, which she brought with her to the waiting limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, were already seated in the open convertible as the Kennedys entered and sat behind them. Since it was no longer raining, the plastic bubble top had been left off. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the motorcade. The procession left the airport and traveled along a ten-mile route that wound through downtown Dallas on the way to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon.

The Assassination Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza. Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was also hit in the chest. The car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away. But little could be done for the President. A Catholic priest was summoned to administer the last rites, and at 1:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. Though seriously wounded, Governor Connally would recover. The president's body was brought to Love Field and placed on Air Force One. Before the plane took off, a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson stood in the tight, crowded compartment and took the oath of office, administered by US District Court Judge Sarah Hughes. The brief ceremony took place at 2:38 p.m. Less than an hour earlier, police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a recently hired employee at the Texas School Book Depository.

He was being held for the assassination of President Kennedy and the fatal shooting, shortly afterward, of Patrolman J. D. Tippit on a Dallas street. On Sunday morning, November 24, Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to the county jail. Viewers across America watching the live television coverage suddenly saw a man aim a pistol and fire at point blank range. The assailant was identified as Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Oswald died two hours later at Parkland Hospital. The President's Funer al That same day, President Kennedy's flag-draped casket was moved from the White House to the Capitol on a caisson drawn by six grey horses, accompanied by one riderless black horse. At Mrs. Kennedy's request, the cortege and other ceremonial details were modeled on the funeral of Abraham Lincoln. Crowds line d Pennsylvania Avenue and many wept openly as the caisson passed. During the 21 hours that the president's body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda, about 250,000 people filed by to pay their respects. On Monday, November 25, 1963 President Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

The funeral was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 100 countries, with untold millions more watching on television. Afterward, at the grave site, Mrs. Kennedy and her husband's brothers, Robert and Edward, lit an eternal flame. Perhaps the most indelible images of the day were the salute to his father given by little John F. Kennedy Jr. (whose third birthday it was), daughter Caroline kneeling next to her mother at the president's bier, and the extraordinary grace and dignity shown by Jacqueline Kennedy. As people throughout the nation and the world struggled to make sense of a senseless act and to articulate their feelings about President Kennedy's life and legacy, many recalled these words from his inaugural address: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration. Nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. The Warren Commission On November 29, 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. It came to be known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States.

President Johnson directed the commission to evaluate matters relating to the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin, and to report its findings and conclusions to him. The Warren Commission's report is available here . The House Select Committee on Assassinations The US House of Representatives established the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1976 to reopen the investigation of the assassination in light of allegations that previous inquiries had not received the full cooperation of federal agencies. Note to the reader: Point 1B in the link below to the findings of the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations states that the committee had found "a high probability that two gunmen fired" at the president. This conclusion resulted from the last-minute “discovery” of a Dallas police radio transmission tape that allegedly provided evidence that four or more shots were fired in Dealey Plaza. After the report appeared in print, acoustic experts analyzed the tape and proved conclusively that it was completely worthless—thus negating the finding in Point 1B. The committee, which also investigated the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., issued its report on March 29, 1979. To see the report, click here . Assassination Records Collection Through the President John F.

Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the US Congress ordered that all assassination-related material be housed together under supervision of the National Archives and Records Administration. Learn more about the collection here . Arlington National Cemetery To learn more about President Kennedy's funeral and grave site, go to the Arlington National Cemetery website. The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 1963 The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 1963 Printer Friendly Version >>> Air Force One touched down at Dallas’s Love Field at about 11:30 on the morning of November 22, 1963. On board was President John F. Kennedy who was beginning the first day of a planned two-day trip to Texas. Within minutes, the president and his wife Jackie took their places in the rear seat of the presidential limousine and joined a motorcade that would escort America’s leader to his death. The young president had been in office less than three years. The highlight of his tenure had occurred in October a year earlier when nuclear war had been averted by the diffusion of a confrontation with the Soviet Union over their deployment of missiles in Cuba.

President Kennedy and Jackie arrive in Dallas, 11:25 AM 11/22/63 Click picture to see the assassination site His trip to Texas was a political one – an attempt to mollify a factious division within the Texas Democratic Party that might threaten his run for re-election the following year. Accompanying the president in his open limousine was the Democratic Governor of Texas, John Connally, and his wife Nellie. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife Lady Bird rode in a following limousine accompanied by Texas Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough. The motorcade (led by Dallas police, interspersed with Secret Service cars and followed by press cars) slowly made its way through the streets of Dallas to the accompaniment of cheering crowds that filled the sidewalks. By 12:30 it was approaching its end as it slowed to make a sharp left-hand turn in front of the Texas School Book Depository Building. Suddenly the festive atmosphere was shattered by the sound of three shots and immediately replaced with horror and chaos. As spectators ran or fell to the ground in self-protection, the motorcade accelerated to top speed and raced to near-by Parkland Hospital.

The president was dead, Governor Connally wounded. The president’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, fled the scene. About forty-five minutes later, Oswald was confronted by a police officer on a Dallas street. Oswald shot and killed the officer and then ran into a near-by movie theater where he was captured. Two days later, Oswald himself became the victim of an assassin’s bullet as he was being escorted from police headquarters to the Dallas County Jail. "Suddenly there was a sharp, loud report – a shot." Lady Bird Johnson made a tape recording of her recollections of the president’s assassination two or three days after the event. We join her story as the motorcade leaves the airport: ADVERTISMENT "It all began so beautifully. After a drizzle in the morning, the sun came out bright and beautiful. We were going into Dallas. In the lead car, President and Mrs. Kennedy, John and Nellie, and then a Secret Service car full of men, and then our car – Lyndon and me and Senator Yarborough. The streets were lined with people.- lots and lots of people – the children were all smiling, placards, confetti, people waving from windows.

One last happy moment I had was looking up and seeing Mary Griffith leaning out of a window and waving at me. Then, almost at the edge of town, on our way to the Trade Mart where we were going to have the luncheon, we were rounding a curve, going down a hill and suddenly there was a sharp, loud report – a shot. It seemed to me to come from the right above my shoulder from a building. Then a moment and then two more shots in rapid succession. There had been such a gala air that I thought it must be firecrackers or some kind of celebration. Then the lead car, the Secret Service men were suddenly down. I heard over the radio system ‘Let’s get out of here, ‘ and our man who was with us, Ruf Youngblood, I believe it was, vaulted over the front seat on top of Lyndon, threw him to the floor and said, ‘Get down.’ Senator Yarborough and I ducked our heads. The car accelerated terrifically fast – faster and faster. Then suddenly they put on the brakes so hard I wondered if we were going to make it as we wheeled left and went around the corner. We pulled up to a building.

I looked up and saw it said ‘Hospital.’ Only then did I believe that this might be what it was. Yarborough kept saying in an excited voice, ‘Have they shot the President?’ I said something like, ‘No, it can’t be.’ Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as president aboard Air Force One Jackie Kennedy stands at his side 3:38 PM 11/22/63 As we ground to a halt – we were still in the third car – Secret Service men began to pull, lead, guide and hustle us out. I cast one last look over my shoulder and saw, in the President’s car, a bundle of pink just like a drift of blossoms, lying on the back seat. I think it was Mrs. Kennedy lying over the President’s body. They led us to the right, the left and onward into a quiet room in the hospital - - a very small room. It was lined with white sheets, I believe. People came and went – Kenny O’Donnell, Congressman Thornberry, Congressman Jack Brooks. Always there was Ruf right there, Emory Roberts, Jerry Kivett, Lem Johns and Woody Taylor.

There was talk about where we would go – back to Washington, to the plane, to our house. People spoke of how wide-spread this may be. Through it all, Lyndon was remarkably calm and quiet. Every face that came in, you searched for the answers you must know. I think the face I kept seeing it on was the face of Kenny O’Donnell who loved him so much. It was Lyndon, as usual, who thought of it first. Although I wasn’t going to leave without doing it. He said, ‘You had better try to see if you can see Jackie and Nellie.’ We didn’t know what had happened to John. I asked the Secret Service men if I could be taken to them. They began to lead me up one corridor, back stairs and down another. Suddenly I found myself face to face with Jackie in a small hall. I think it was right outside the operating room. You always think of her – or someone like her, as being insulated, protected – she was quite alone.I don’t think I ever saw anyone so much alone in my life. I went up to her, put my arms around her and said something to her.

I’m sure it was something like, ‘God, help us all,’ because my feelings for her were too tumultuous to put into words. And then I went to see Nellie. There it was different, because Nellie and I have been through so many things together since 1938. I hugged her tight and we both cried and I said, ‘Nellie, its going to be all right.‘ And Nellie said, ‘Yes, John’s going to be alright.’ Among her many other qualities, she is also tough." References: Lady Bird Johnson’s remembrance of the assassination is located in the National Archives, NLLBJ-D2440-7a; Manchester, William, The Death of a President (1967); United States Warren Commission, Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1964). How To Cite This Article: "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 1963" EyeWitness to History, (2007).

Rufus Youngblood, the Secret Service agent who threw himself over Vice President Johnson when shots were heard, became head of Johnson's security when Johnson became President. Youngblood later became Deputy Director of the Secret Service. He died in 1996 at age 72. John F. Kennedy assassinated - Nov 22, 1963 - HISTORY.com John F. Kennedy assassinated Publisher A+E Networks John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy rarely accompanied her husband on political outings, but she was beside him, along with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, for a 10-mile motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas on November 22. Sitting in a Lincoln convertible, the Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large and enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade route. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally.

Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. He was 46. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who was three cars behind President Kennedy in the motorcade, was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States at 2:39 p.m. He took the presidential oath of office aboard Air Force One as it sat on the runway at Dallas Love Field airport. The swearing in was witnessed by some 30 people, including Jacqueline Kennedy, who was still wearing clothes stained with her husband’s blood. Seven minutes later, the presidential jet took off for Washington. The next day, November 23, President Johnson issued his first proclamation, declaring November 25 to be a day of national mourning for the slain president. On that Monday, hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Washington to watch a horse-drawn caisson bear Kennedy’s body from the Capitol Rotunda to St. Matthew’s Catholic Cathedral for a requiem Mass. The solemn procession then continued on to Arlington National Cemetery, where leaders of 99 nations gathered for the state funeral.

Kennedy was buried with full military honors on a slope below Arlington House, where an eternal flame was lit by his widow to forever mark the grave. Lee Harvey Oswald, born in New Orleans in 1939, joined the U.S. Marines in 1956. He was discharged in 1959 and nine days later left for the Soviet Union, where he tried unsuccessfully to become a citizen. He worked in Minsk and married a Soviet woman and in 1962 was allowed to return to the United States with his wife and infant daughter. In early 1963, he bought a .38 revolver and rifle with a telescopic sight by mail order, and on April 10 in Dallas he allegedly shot at and missed former U.S. Army general Edwin Walker, a figure known for his extreme right-wing views. Later that month, Oswald went to New Orleans and founded a branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a pro-Castro organization. In September 1963, he went to Mexico City, where investigators allege that he attempted to secure a visa to travel to Cuba or return to the USSR.

In October, he returned to Dallas and took a job at the Texas School Book Depository Building. Less than an hour after Kennedy was shot, Oswald killed a policeman who questioned him on the street near his rooming house in Dallas. Thirty minutes later, Oswald was arrested in a movie theater by police responding to reports of a suspect. He was formally arraigned on November 23 for the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit. On November 24, Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of police and press with live television cameras rolling gathered to witness his departure. As Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Ruby, who was immediately detained, claimed that rage at Kennedy’s murder was the motive for his action. Some called him a hero, but he was nonetheless charged with first-degree murder. Jack Ruby, originally known as Jacob Rubenstein, operated strip joints and dance halls in Dallas and had minor connections to organized crime. He features prominently in Kennedy-assassination theories, and many believe he killed Oswald to keep him from revealing a larger conspiracy.

In his trial, Ruby denied the allegation and pleaded innocent on the grounds that his great grief over Kennedy’s murder had caused him to suffer “psychomotor epilepsy” and shoot Oswald unconsciously. The jury found Ruby guilty of “murder with malice” and sentenced him to die. In October 1966, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the decision on the grounds of improper admission of testimony and the fact that Ruby could not have received a fair trial in Dallas at the time. In January 1967, while awaiting a new trial, to be held in Wichita Falls, Ruby died of lung cancer in a Dallas hospital. The official Warren Commission report of 1964 concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or international, to assassinate President Kennedy. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee’s findings, as with those of the Warren Commission, continue to be widely disputed.

Related Videos DiscoverLBJ LBJ Presidential Library About DiscoverLBJ is the LBJ Presidential Library's online digital archive. The site is currently in BETA mode as we are in the process of migrating and digitizing new content. Learn more . Resources As a start, we recommend reviewing the List of Holdings for a true description of the library’s collections of documents, photographs, audio, and moving image records. Featured Online and searchable for the first time, explore Lady Bird Johnson's daily diary and personal diary. The collections feature audio and transcripts. Lyndon B. Johnson | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Lyndon B. Johnson In the 1960 campaign, Lyndon B. Johnson was elected Vice President as John F. Kennedy's running mate. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as the 36th United States President, with a vision to build "A Great Society" for the American people. "A Great Society" for the American people and their fellow men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most extensive legislative programs in the Nation's history.

Maintaining collective security, he carried on the rapidly growing struggle to restrain Communist encroachment in Viet Nam. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas, not far from Johnson City, which his family had helped settle. He felt the pinch of rural poverty as he grew up, working his way through Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos); he learned compassion for the poverty of others when he taught students of Mexican descent. In 1937 he campaigned successfully for the House of Representatives on a New Deal platform, effectively aided by his wife, the former Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor, whom he had married in 1934. During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures. In the 1960 campaign, Johnson, as John F.

Kennedy's running mate, was elected Vice President. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as President. First he obtained enactment of the measures President Kennedy had been urging at the time of his death--a new civil rights bill and a tax cut. Next he urged the Nation "to build a great society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of man's labor." In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had the widest popular margin in American history--more than 15,000,000 votes. The Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations. Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.

Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new era. . . . " Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965. Despite the beginning of new antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black ghettos troubled the Nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation and on behalf of law and order, but there was no early solution. The other crisis arose from Viet Nam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end Communist aggression and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March 1968, when he limited the bombing of North Viet Nam in order to initiate negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for re-election so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace.

When he left office, peace talks were under way; he did not live to see them successful, but died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. For more information about President Johnson, please visit November 22, 1963: Death of the President - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum November 22, 1963: Death of the President November 22, 1963: Death of the President Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. By the fall of 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Although he had not formally announced his candidacy, it was clear that President Kennedy was going to run and he seemed confident about his chances for re-election.

At the end of September, the president traveled west, speaking in nine different states in less than a week. The trip was meant to put a spotlight on natural resources and conservation efforts. But JFK also used it to sound out themes—such as education, national security, and world peace—for his run in 1964. Campaigning in Texas A month later, the president addressed Democratic gatherings in Boston and Philadelphia. Then, on November 12, he held the first important political planning session for the upcoming election year. At the meeting, JFK stressed the importance of winning Florida and Texas and talked about his plans to visit both states in the next two weeks. Mrs. Kennedy would accompany him on the swing through Texas, which would be her first extended public appearance since the loss of their baby, Patrick, in August. On November 21, the president and first lady departed on Air Force One for the two-day, five-city tour of Texas. President Kennedy was aware that a feud among party leaders in Texas could jeopardize his chances of carrying the state in 1964, and one of his aims for the trip was to bring Democrats together.

He also knew that a relatively small but vocal group of extremists was contributing to the political tensions in Texas and would likely make its presence felt—particularly in Dallas, where US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked a month earlier after making a speech there. Nonetheless, JFK seemed to relish the prospect of leaving Washington, getting out among the people and into the political fray. The first stop was San Antonio. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John B. Connally, and Senator Ralph W. Yarborough led the welcoming party. They accompanied the president to Brooks Air Force Base for the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center. Continuing on to Houston, he addressed a Latin American citizens' organization and spoke at a testimonial dinner for Congressman Albert Thomas before ending the day in Fort Worth. Morning in Fort Worth A light rain was falling on Friday morning, November 22, but a crowd of several thousand stood in the parking lot outside the Texas Hotel where the Kennedys had spent the night. A platform was set up and the president, wearing no protection against the weather, came out to make some brief remarks.

"There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth," he began, "and I appreciate your being here this morning. Mrs. Kennedy is organizing herself. It takes longer, but, of course, she looks better than we do when she does it." He went on to talk about the nation's need for being "second to none" in defense and in space, for continued growth in the economy and "the willingness of citizens of the United States to assume the burdens of leadership." The warmth of the audience response was palpable as the president reached out to shake hands amidst a sea of smiling faces. Back inside the hotel the president spoke at a breakfast of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, focusing on military preparedness. "We are still the keystone in the arch of freedom," he said. "We will continue to do…our duty, and the people of Texas will be in the lead." On to Dallas The presidential party left the hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Arriving at Love Field, President and Mrs. Kennedy disembarked and immediately walked toward a fence where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered, and they spent several minutes shaking hands.

The first lady received a bouquet of red roses, which she brought with her to the waiting limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, were already seated in the open convertible as the Kennedys entered and sat behind them. Since it was no longer raining, the plastic bubble top had been left off. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the motorcade. The procession left the airport and traveled along a ten-mile route that wound through downtown Dallas on the way to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon. The Assassination Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza. Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was also hit in the chest. The car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away. But little could be done for the President. A Catholic priest was summoned to administer the last rites, and at 1:00 p.m. John F.

Kennedy was pronounced dead. Though seriously wounded, Governor Connally would recover. The president's body was brought to Love Field and placed on Air Force One. Before the plane took off, a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson stood in the tight, crowded compartment and took the oath of office, administered by US District Court Judge Sarah Hughes. The brief ceremony took place at 2:38 p.m. Less than an hour earlier, police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a recently hired employee at the Texas School Book Depository. He was being held for the assassination of President Kennedy and the fatal shooting, shortly afterward, of Patrolman J. D. Tippit on a Dallas street. On Sunday morning, November 24, Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to the county jail. Viewers across America watching the live television coverage suddenly saw a man aim a pistol and fire at point blank range. The assailant was identified as Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Oswald died two hours later at Parkland Hospital.

The President's Funer al That same day, President Kennedy's flag-draped casket was moved from the White House to the Capitol on a caisson drawn by six grey horses, accompanied by one riderless black horse. At Mrs. Kennedy's request, the cortege and other ceremonial details were modeled on the funeral of Abraham Lincoln. Crowds line d Pennsylvania Avenue and many wept openly as the caisson passed. During the 21 hours that the president's body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda, about 250,000 people filed by to pay their respects. On Monday, November 25, 1963 President Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. The funeral was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 100 countries, with untold millions more watching on television. Afterward, at the grave site, Mrs. Kennedy and her husband's brothers, Robert and Edward, lit an eternal flame. Perhaps the most indelible images of the day were the salute to his father given by little John F. Kennedy Jr.

(whose third birthday it was), daughter Caroline kneeling next to her mother at the president's bier, and the extraordinary grace and dignity shown by Jacqueline Kennedy. As people throughout the nation and the world struggled to make sense of a senseless act and to articulate their feelings about President Kennedy's life and legacy, many recalled these words from his inaugural address: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration. Nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. The Warren Commission On November 29, 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. It came to be known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States. President Johnson directed the commission to evaluate matters relating to the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin, and to report its findings and conclusions to him. The Warren Commission's report is available here .

The House Select Committee on Assassinations The US House of Representatives established the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1976 to reopen the investigation of the assassination in light of allegations that previous inquiries had not received the full cooperation of federal agencies. Note to the reader: Point 1B in the link below to the findings of the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations states that the committee had found "a high probability that two gunmen fired" at the president. This conclusion resulted from the last-minute “discovery” of a Dallas police radio transmission tape that allegedly provided evidence that four or more shots were fired in Dealey Plaza. After the report appeared in print, acoustic experts analyzed the tape and proved conclusively that it was completely worthless—thus negating the finding in Point 1B. The committee, which also investigated the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., issued its report on March 29, 1979. To see the report, click here . Assassination Records Collection Through the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the US Congress ordered that all assassination-related material be housed together under supervision of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Learn more about the collection here . Arlington National Cemetery To learn more about President Kennedy's funeral and grave site, go to the Arlington National Cemetery website. Lyndon B. Johnson - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com Lyndon B. Johnson A+E Networks Introduction Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-73) became the 36th president of the United States following the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). Upon taking office, Johnson, a Texan who had served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, launched an ambitious slate of progressive reforms aimed at alleviating poverty and creating what he called a “Great Society” for all Americans. Many of the programs he introduced–including Medicare and Head Start–made a lasting impact in the areas of health, education, urban renewal, conservation and civil rights. Despite his impressive domestic achievements, however, Johnson’s legacy was equally defined by his failure to lead the nation out of the quagmire of the Vietnam War (1954-75).

He declined to run for a second full term in office, and retired to his Texas ranch after leaving the White House in January 1969. Google Early Years Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near the central Texas community of Johnson City, which was named for some of his relatives. He was the first of five children of Sam Ealy Johnson Jr. (1877-1937), a farmer, businessman and state legislator, and his wife, Rebekah Baines Johnson (1881-1958). The young Johnson graduated from Southwest State Teachers College (now called Texas State University-San Marcos) in San Marcos, Texas, in 1930. To help pay for his education, he taught at a school for disadvantaged Mexican-American students in southern Texas. This firsthand look at the effects of poverty and discrimination made a deep impression on Johnson and sparked in him a lifelong desire to find solutions to these problems. Did You Know? In 1967, Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights lawyer and great-grandson of a slave, became the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

He was nominated by President Johnson, who called it "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." In 1931, Johnson moved to Washington , D.C., to serve as congressional secretary for newly elected U.S. Representative Richard Kleberg (1887-1955) of Texas. Energetic and capable, Johnson began to meet influential people and learn about the political process. On November 17, 1934, he married Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor (1912-2007), a fellow Texan with whom he later had two daughters, Lynda (1944-) and Luci (1947-). In 1935, Johnson returned home to become the Texas director of the National Youth Administration, a federal program aimed at helping young people find jobs or volunteer work during the Great Depression. Congressional Career Johnson’s political career began in earnest in 1937, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Quickly earning respect as a smart and hardworking legislator, he was re-elected five times. After an unsuccessful run for a U.S.

Senate seat in 1941, Johnson became the first member of Congress to volunteer for active duty in the military when the United States entered World War II (1939-45). He reported for active duty in December 1941 and served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander until all members of Congress in the military were recalled to Washington in the summer of 1942. In 1948, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate following a bruising Democratic primary. After crisscrossing Texas by helicopter, Johnson managed to eke out a victory in the primary by 87 votes. Once he reached the Senate, Johnson showed a deft political touch. In 1953, at age 44, he became the youngest person ever to serve as minority leader of the Senate. Two years later, when Democrats won control of Congress, Johnson became the Senate majority leader. His ability to work productively with Republican President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) and unite his party behind important legislation made him a powerful figure in Washington. White House Years In 1960, John F.

Kennedy , the Democratic presidential nominee, invited Johnson to be his vice presidential running mate. Johnson’s presence on the ticket attracted the support of conservative Southern Democrats and helped lift Kennedy to a narrow victory over Republican candidate Richard Nixon (1913-94). On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Johnson was sworn in as president later that day aboard Air Force One, and immediately reassured a shocked and grieving nation that he would make Kennedy’s progressive vision for America a reality. He declared a “war on poverty” and pushed Congress to pass legislation attacking illiteracy, unemployment and discrimination. After routing Republican candidate Barry Goldwater (1909-98) by more than 15 million votes in the 1964 presidential election, Johnson introduced a slate of new reforms that he said would build a Great Society for all Americans. His ambitious legislative agenda created the Medicare and Medicaid programs to provide federal health insurance for elderly and poor Americans. It also included measures aimed at improving education, preventing crime and reducing air and water pollution.

Johnson also made great strides in attacking racial discrimination by signing the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. His wide-reaching achievements improved the lives of millions of Americans and contributed to economic growth and prosperity. Undone by the Vietnam War Despite Johnson’s success in promoting his domestic reform policies, however, his presidency was equally defined by the failure of his policies toward Vietnam. Like the three presidents before him, Johnson was determined to prevent North Vietnamese Communists from taking over the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam. He believed that America’s national security depended on containing the spread of communism around the world. As part of this effort, Johnson steadily escalated U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War . The number of American troops in Vietnam soared from 16,000 when he first took office in 1963 to more than 500,000 in 1968, yet the conflict remained a bloody stalemate. As the war dragged on and American and Vietnamese casualties mounted, anti-war protests rocked college campuses and cities across the U.S. Johnson’s popularity within his own party plummeted as well.

When it appeared that he might face a stiff challenge for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson announced his decision not to run for re-election. “I shall not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president,” he said in a nationally televised speech on March 31, 1968. Johnson explained that he wanted to focus on the peace process and pressing domestic issues without the distraction of a political campaign. The conflict in Vietnam, though, brought him nothing but pain and frustration during his last months in office, and U.S. military involvement in Vietnam continued for four years after his departure from Washington in January 1969. Final Years Following the inauguration of Republican President Nixon, Johnson retired to his Texas ranch, where he spent the next few years establishing his presidential library (which opened in 1971 on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin) and writing his memoirs. He died of a heart attack at age 64 on January 22, 1973, at his ranch. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today.

Tags Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit | Dallas Morning News October 12, 2013 11:49 PM CDT October 13, 2013 09:26 AM CDT Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit 1/3 File/The Associated Press U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson was struck on the head by a sign wielded by a woman protesting outside Memorial Auditorium in Dallas in October 1963, one month before President John F. Kennedy's assassination. 12 October 2013 11:49 PM Updated: 13 October 2013 09:26 AM The image of Dallas as a bulwark of right-wing extremism lodged in the American mind during the early 1960s. The reality was more complicated. Most people, here as elsewhere, were more interested in orbiting astronauts, James Bond movies and Elvis than they were in attending meetings of the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.

But complexity surrendered to the image when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963. Dallas became known to the world as the city of hate, the city that killed Kennedy. The negative narrative had taken root three years earlier, when U.S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, visited Dallas shortly before the 1960 presidential election. Johnson was a moderate Democrat and by far the state’s most powerful politician. More important, he was JFK’s running mate. A gaggle of disagreeable Kennedy detractors, mostly well-dressed women, confronted the Johnsons upon their arrival at the Adolphus Hotel. They surrounded the startled couple on the street, screaming and spitting at them. The greeting party had been organized by U.S. Rep. Bruce Alger, an archconservative Dallas Republican and a supporter of Kennedy’s election opponent, Richard Nixon. As the Johnsons were accosted, Alger stood nearby holding a sign that said, “LBJ Sold Out to Yankee Socialists.” The confrontation drew national attention. Conservatives in other cities voiced concerns about JFK. But in Dallas they screamed them with a venom that frightened many.

“You could feel it in the air,” recalled historian Darwin Payne, who was a Dallas newspaper reporter in the early 1960s. “When I hear some people express hatred for [President Barack] Obama, it feels the same. But I never have felt we are on the verge of anything like the events I witnessed back then.” John Birch Society HQ In the 1950s and early ’60s, fear of communism and of nuclear war with the Soviet Union spread across America like a political flu. The John Birch Society designated Dallas a regional headquarters and opened a bookstore here. The society preached that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower — among many others — were willing dupes of the Communist Party. Robert Welch, the retired candy manufacturer who founded the John Birch Society, was convinced that communists controlled American labor unions, the leaders of the civil rights movement — and John F. Kennedy. Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, authors of a new book, Dallas 1963, said extremists in Dallas didn’t just criticize Kennedy; they painted him as a traitor.

“There was something in Dallas that seemed to be summoning people to a raw, hard-edged resistance to JFK,” said Minutaglio, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a former staff writer at The Dallas Morning News. “We believe it was a distinct minority, but pretty powerful at the top.” And none wielded more power than H.L. Hunt. The oil titan was reputed to be the richest man in America. He wasn’t shy about spending his money to advance his political beliefs. On Feb. 15, 1960, eight months before the assault on LBJ and Lady Bird outside the Adolphus, Hunt appeared at a downtown bookstore to autograph copies of his utopian novel, Alpaca. Despite the frosty weather, hundreds of Dallas residents lined up outside the bookstore. The book, a thinly veiled political manifesto, told the story of Juan Achala, a citizen of “Alpaca” who traveled the world in search of the perfect constitution for his small nation. Hunt the novelist revealed that Hunt the oil baron had little use for the ideal of political equality. In his perfect world, the wealthiest citizens — those paying the most taxes — would be given extra votes.

Political discussion would be prohibited on television and radio, and at any meeting of more than 200 people. This was to prevent demagogues from influencing the masses. The speech restrictions were odd, given that Hunt spent the previous decade using TV and radio to push his political views through Facts Forum, a propaganda outlet masquerading as a “public service” program. Hunt was baldly pro-business and anti-regulation. He despised communism, the United Nations and John F. Kennedy. As Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, was pursing the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960, Hunt secretly financed the printing of 200,000 copies of an anti-Catholic sermon by the Rev. W.A. Criswell, the influential pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. Criswell argued that if a Catholic became president, the pope would dictate American policy. Clint Murchison, another prominent Dallas oil man, opposed Kennedy’s plans for expanded federal aid to the poor. More important, Kennedy seemed sympathetic to rolling back the oil depletion allowance, a tax break that helped men like Hunt and Murchison grow even wealthier.

Jane Wolfe, author of The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty, said Murchison and other Texas oil magnates were shocked when LBJ agreed to become JFK’s running mate. “Johnson had enormous clout in the Senate,” Wolfe wrote. “And much of this power was due to these Texas oilmen.” Extreme-right general One of the right-wing, anti-communist zealots drawn to Dallas in the early 1960s was U.S. Army Gen. Edwin Walker. A veteran of World War II and the Korean conflict, Walker resigned his Army commission in November 1961, after civilian superiors in Washington admonished him for pressing John Birch Society literature on his troops. Walker openly called prominent politicians “pink,” a term for those suspected of being communist sympathizers. He even embraced the John Birch Society’s view that Eisenhower, a World War II hero before becoming president, was a communist. Most people, of course, found that notion absurd. Nonetheless, the extreme right worshiped Walker as a super-patriot.

When he moved to Dallas in December 1961, Mayor Earle Cabell greeted him with a welcoming proclamation, presented before a crowd of 5,000 well-wishers. Within days, Walker began a campaign for governor of Texas, filing as a candidate in the Democratic primary. Dallas was his campaign headquarters. With the backing of H.L. Hunt, he ran as a states’ rights segregationist dedicated to exposing communists in every walk of life. In a primary field of six Democrats, he finished sixth. Walker, however, wasn’t nearly finished carving his name into Dallas’ political history. In a bizarre twist of history, Walker would become the victim of an assassination attempt April 10, 1963, seven months before Kennedy was killed. His would-be assassin? Lee Harvey Oswald, a troubled ex-Marine and self-described communist who had defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 before returning to the United States and settling in Dallas in the summer of 1962.

After Oswald’s arrest in connection with the Kennedy assassination, his wife, Marina, testified that her husband told her he had taken a bus to Walker’s home on Turtle Creek Boulevard and, from outside the home, fired one rifle shot at the former general, who was seated at a desk and visible through a window. The bullet struck the window frame, and Walker sustained only minor injuries. Marina Oswald said her husband told her Walker was the leader of a “fascist organization.” She could offer no logical explanation for why Lee Oswald, an avowed leftist, would target the right-wing extremist Walker and the president, who was despised by so many on the far right. Attack on U.N. envoy At his home, Walker flew an American flag upside down — a symbol of distress. Later, he would plant a billboard in his yard calling for the impeachment of Earl Warren, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was viewed by the far right as the evil architect of school integration and the outlawing of officially sanctioned prayers in the classroom. But those symbols were mere smudges on the national snapshot of Dallas, compared with the attack on U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson II on Oct.

24, 1963, a month before Kennedy’s assassination. The story goes like this: When Walker heard that Stevenson was coming to Dallas to deliver a speech at Memorial Auditorium commemorating U.N. Day, he scheduled a “U.S. Day” celebration one day earlier at the same downtown locale. Walker, speaking to 1,000 people, called his gathering a “symbol of our sovereignty,” then added: “Tomorrow night, there will stand here a symbol of the communist conspiracy and its United Nations.” During Stevenson’s U.N. Day address, a heckler stood up in the audience and began shouting into a bullhorn. He was later identified as a founder of the National Indignation Convention, another right-wing Dallas group that had supported Walker in his failed run for governor. Police escorted the heckler from the auditorium, but the trouble had just begun. After the speech, a hostile crowd of about 100 protesters surrounded the ambassador outside the auditorium. Many carried signs denouncing the U.N. — signs that had been stored at Walker’s home, according to Payne, the Dallas historian. Stevenson tried to reason with the protesters. Suddenly, one woman conked him on the head with her sign.

A man spat on him. After police broke through the crowd to rescue him, Stevenson was heard to say, “Are these human beings or are these animals?” Once again, the spotlight shone on Dallas. “A City Disgraced,” read the headline in Time magazine. The Dallas Morning News, in an editorial headlined “Our Apologies,” defended the ambassador’s right to deliver his speech and admonished demonstrators for their crude manners. The editorial ended with words that, read today, are chilling: “The President of the United States will be here in November. We trust he will be welcomed and accorded the respect and dignity that go with the office he represents.” Newspaper’s editorials In the early 1960s, the opinion pages of The Dallas Morning News reflected the anti-Kennedy views of the newspaper’s publisher, E.M. “Ted” Dealey. Day after day, editorials and opinion columns criticized the president. He was soft on communism. He was deceitful. He was expanding the reach of the federal government at the expense of individual liberty. One of the newspaper’s prominent columnists was Robert Morris. Like Walker, he had moved to Dallas in the early 1960s.

Morris made his reputation as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on internal security. Morris had been a close associate of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who became infamous for his witch hunts against imagined communists in the State Department, the Truman White House, the U.S. Army, even the Voice of America. In a ceremonial 1961 visit to the White House, Ted Dealey decided to let the president know just what he thought of him. The occasion was a luncheon for Texas publishers. When Kennedy asked them if they had any questions, Dealey rose. Reading from a prepared text, he told Kennedy, “The general opinion of the grassroots thinking in this country is that you and your administration are weak sisters.” It got worse. “We need a man on horseback to lead this nation,” Dealey said, “and many people in Texas and the Southwest think that you are riding Caroline’s tricycle.” The other publishers were aghast at the rude display. Kennedy kept his cool, but later expressed anger that Dealey had derided him with a reference to his 3-year-old daughter. On Nov.

22, 1963, The News greeted the first couple with a print version of “good cop, bad cop.” The newspaper’s lead editorial expressed hope that JFK’s visit to Dallas might help “Democrats, Republicans and Independents unite today in a genuineness of welcome and cordiality.” However, a full-page advertisement on Page 14, framed by a funereal black border, carried a sarcastic headline: “Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas.” It asked a series of 12 biting questions, each starting with “WHY” in bold capital letters. “WHY has Gus Hall, head of the U.S. Communist Party praised almost every one of your policies and announced that the party will endorse and support your re-election?” “WHY have you scrapped the Monroe Doctrine in favor of the ‘Spirit of Moscow?’” And so forth. The ad was signed by “The American Fact-Finding Committee,” which listed a “Bernard Weissman” as its chairman. But these were fronts. Warren Commission investigators later determined that Joseph P.

Grinnan, an oil broker and local leader of the John Birch Society, had paid for the ad with “around $1,500” donated by three men: H. R. “Bum” Bright, an oil man who later became owner of the Dallas Cowboys; Nelson Bunker Hunt, a son of H.L. Hunt; and Edgar Crissey, an insurance company executive. Ted Dealey acknowledged approving the ad in advance because it lined up with the editorial opinions of The News. Stanley Marcus, the head of Neiman Marcus and a Kennedy supporter, reflecting on those times, later said: “The News, in my opinion, was almost single-handedly responsible for the prevailing state of mind in Dallas at the time of the assassination.” Police chief’s fears The news that JFK would visit Dallas broke on Sept. 25, 1963. The attack on Stevenson came a month later. Civic leaders and Dallas police were determined to prevent anything similar from happening when the president and the first lady were in town. The city had been embarrassed enough.

“As the tension mounted, the small and violent minority were in danger of upsetting the stability of the entire city,” Jesse Curry, the police chief at the time of the assassination, wrote in a 1969 memoir. Curry was riding in the presidential motorcade on Nov. 22. Cheering crowds lined the route between Love Field and downtown. People waved and strained to catch a glimpse of the president and his wife in their big Lincoln limousine. The atmosphere contradicted the image of Dallas as a city that hated the president. “The people of Dallas had turned out in overwhelming numbers and had given the President a vibrant and warm welcome,” Curry recalled. “For a brief moment, I almost started to relax.” COMMEMORATING JFK Nov. 2 symposium Tickets are on sale for the Nov. 2 symposium, “Understanding Tragedy: The Impact of the JFK Assassination on Dallas,” presented by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture in partnership withThe Dallas Morning News and other organizations. The symposium will take place from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

at The South Side Ballroom in Dallas and will feature more than a dozen high-profile speakers, including Jim Lehrer, Stephen Carter, Nikky Finney, Richard Rodriguez and Lawrence Wright. The event will explore how President John F. Kennedy’s death affected Dallas from four perspectives: Journalism, Politics, Art & the Humanities, and Religion. Tickets range from $25 to $300 and are available at . More information is also available at JFK50.com. editor picks

Question: Who became president following the assination of John F Kennedy in 1963?
Answer: Lyndon B Johnson